How do I find out about concerts? How do I get more details about something I heard over the air? How do I submit events to WORT’s Music Calendars? Who do I contact with changes or cancellations?

WORT’s Music Calendars are a great resource to find out about concerts in all genres and places. Usually you’ll find details in the online listing or links to get more information. There’s a link to to submit your event at the top of the calendar page. You can also submit events, changes and cancellations to calendar@wortfm.org.

Contact Information

Music Director: Sybil Augustine – musicdirector@wortfm.org (for music submissions, charts and tracking, promotional exchanges for music events and following up on volunteer applications or other requests. Please include specifics in your subject line, such as “Hiphop Music Submission” etc, )

How do I get my music played on WORT?

We accept submissions in most genres and styles of music, focusing on noncommercial, out-of-the-mainstream, independent releases (check out our playlists and music charts for more information.) It may take up to a few weeks for us to review and process your submission so we appreciate your patience, and feel free to contact us to follow up. Please send your music, indicating any tracks with language that needs to be aired after 10 pm and including a one-sheet description and any biographical and tour information, to WORT Music Director, 118 S. Bedford St, Madison, WI 53703 and/or to musicdirector@wortfm.org.

We do accept digital files on .wav or mp3, but currently we still prefer CDs to digital submissions because it’s the quickest way to get it into the hands of our programmers and onto the airwaves, though we have a growing digital library. Digital submissions should be .wav or other lossless files, or high quality mp3s [128-320 kbps.]

You can follow up or “track” your submissions by email, or call 608-256-2001 on Wednesdays between 1-4 pm CST to ask if we received it, has it been reviewed, has it been added to our library, and what kind of airplay it’s getting—e.g. light, medium, heavy or charting. Thanks and we look forward to hearing your music!

WORT Music Playlists

What was that song I heard? Who was the artist, what is the album title, where can I get it? Where can I find the entire playlist for a show?

Click on the Playlists button to bring up a calendar where you can choose any date to find the playlists for that day. If you can’t find the right playlist or the song you’re looking for, your best bet is to call the station the next time that program’s on and ask the host yourself. If that’s not possible we may be able to help you, but please have as much information as possible at hand when you contact us, such as: approximate day and time the music was played, what type or genre of music it was, who hosted the show and any other information you remember about the selection and we’ll do our best to track it down.

Once you figure it out, there’s a “Buy It!” link next to each track in online playlists that leads you to a place where you can buy songs and albums, and by doing it that way a small portion of each purchase goes to support WORT.

State Supreme Court Rules on Higher Wages for Wisconsin Attorneys

Some lawyers in Wisconsin are about to get a pay raise, specifically, those that help the poorest.

A State Supreme Court decision ruled to up rates for court-appointed defense attorneys. At $40 an hour, Wisconsin’s attorneys were making the least in the country.

Supporters of the decision say the low rate for court appointed lawyers has actually led to a constitutional crisis.

Attorneys who testified at the public hearing for this move will help the people sitting in jail because the state can’t find an attorney for them.

Attorney Henry Schultz is one of the lawyers who brought the petition to raise pay. He says the low rates have created a collapse of the criminal justice system.

“We have incarcerated defendants who are appearing without a lawyer. We have counties where it takes weeks, and it takes months, to find a lawyer. We have judges telling us and telling you that there are adjournments too numerous to count and that there are intolerable delays. We have substantial inefficiencies on a daily basis.”

The decision wouldn’t change what the state defender is allowed to pay public attorneys, but it would raise the rate for private attorneys the office hires when it doesn’t have a public attorney to do the work. That accounts for about 40 percent of indigent criminal cases in Wisconsin.

Full time staff attorneys at the public defender’s office make even less than $40, the rate for private attorneys hired to pick up the cases they can’t get to.

Now, they’ll have to pay those judge-appointed lawyers $100 an hour, rather than $40 an hour. That’s still quite a bit under what many lawyers make from clients who can afford to pay an attorney themselves.

Those advocating for the measure say although counties will have to take on the extra cost, they hope it will pressure the legislature into creating a more long-term solution. Lawmakers haven’t been able to pass bills that would increase the $40 an hour rate overall. A bipartisan Assembly bill that would raise rates for public defenders failed to pass last year.

Schultz says this ruling might spur change at that level. “They have a County’s Association; they have an organization that lobbies the legislature. They are in the position to do that.”

Some State Supreme Court Justices questioned whether they had the authority to raise rates, since the legislative branch is tasked with power of the purse. But the attorneys who brought the petition say it’s on all branches of government to uphold the US Supreme Court’s 1960’s ruling mandating states provide attorneys to defendants who can’t afford them, a decision known as the Gideon mandate.

John Birdsall is the other attorney who filed the petition to raise wages. “It’s the entire states’ duty to fulfill the Gideon Mandate. It is not assigned to one branch of government. It is Wisconsin’s government’s duty. And for forty years we have failed.”

The $40 an hour rate for public defenders was set in 1995. It’s remained the same since.